Kulebyaka is a traditional Russian closed pie with a complex filling. It is baked from both sponge and unpaired yeast dough. Initially, such pies were prepared in poor village families, but over time, a tasty and simple dish entered the diet of merchants. It is known that kulebyaka was served even at the court of Peter the Great.
To prepare the leavened yeast dough, first place the leaven. To do this, take a couple of liters of warm water and a pack of live yeast. Dough can be started both in warm water and warm milk. Dissolve the yeast in liquid, if necessary, strain through a sieve so that there are no lumps. You can add a spoonful of sugar to activate the fermentation process, and after 5 minutes add 3-4 tablespoons of flour. Mix everything thoroughly and place in a warm place for fermentation.
For the test, you will need:
- 2 liters of ready-made dough,
- 600 grams of flour
- 4 eggs,
- 2 cups sugar
- 70 gr butter or margarine
- a teaspoon of salt.
How to make dough for kulebyaki
As soon as the dough begins to settle, add salt, sugar, eggs to the container and, gradually adding the sifted flour, start kneading the dough. The dough is considered well kneaded when it stops sticking to your hands. Finally, add melted, but not hot, butter.
When finished kneading the dough, cover the container with a clean towel and place in a warm place. The dough will begin to rise in the first 15-20 minutes, it needs to be kneaded three times in the first hour and once in the next two to three hours. Put the finished dough on a chopping board dusted with flour and let it come up a little.
Filling recipe for kulebyaki
The layering of kulebyaki assumes the separation of various fillings into layers so that they are clearly visible when the pie is cut. To do this, transfer the fillings with pre-baked pancakes during the assembly of the kulebyaki.
Prepare the meat filling for the kulebyaki as follows: pass the raw meat through a meat grinder. Fry the minced meat in a pan. Fry the onions separately. Mix the minced meat and onion, season with salt and pepper.
Prepare the rice filling: boil the rice in salted water, drain, mix with chopped eggs, and green onions if desired.
The third filling can be potato. For her, boil potatoes, drain and dry, pass through a meat grinder. It is not accepted to use crushed potatoes, the texture of the product will not be felt. Add mushrooms fried with onions to the resulting potato mass. Salt if necessary.
The last filling is cabbage. Finely chop fresh cabbage, grind with salt and fry in fat in a pan until tender. Mix cabbage with chopped eggs, green onions, salt and pepper.
How to make kulebyaka
Next, you need to collect the kulebyak. To do this, roll out an elongated rectangle up to one centimeter thick from a piece of dough, put the first filling on the resulting layer exactly in the center, cover it with pancakes on top, then the second filling and so on according to the number of those planned. Close the kulebyaka with the second rolled layer and carefully join the edges of the pie around the perimeter, pinch them carefully. Usually, the bottom layer is made a little more than required, this allows you to form neat vertical sides of the cake and not pull the dough. In addition, in this case, the connecting seam of the lower and upper layers will be even. You can even make decorative dough braids that fit along the seam of the pie. Your kulebyaka will look like a large rectangular pie, but you can also make it round.
How to bake kulebyaku
Grease a baking sheet with oil and place the kulebyaka on it with the seam down, provided that you have not used the techniques for decorating it.
Make a few punctures with a fork so that steam comes out of the kulebyaki during baking. Brush the cake with whipped yolk and place in a preheated oven for 20 minutes. After taking the kulebyaka out of the oven, let it cool, then cut into portions, place them on a flat dish.
